Tuesday, July 6, 2021

PrinceWatercress plays Beneath A Steel Sky - Part 1 of 20


It's high time I played another point-and-click game. This one is a bit darker compared to some of the other ones that I've done, but it's nothing short of wonderful due to its gripping story and dystopian setting.


The story begins with the background story of the protagonist, Robert Foster, as told by Robert. The leader of the village in The Gap, who took Robert in when he was just a child following a plane crash that took the life of his mother, has seen a vision of a great evil reaching from across The Gap to the village. It is a story that Robert has heard so many times before, but this time, the evil is here!

The evil comes in the form of a helicopter that opens fire on the village, hitting Robert's robot friend Joey. A small army of soldiers come out of the plane when it lands, and their leader is looking for someone. This leader is Commander Reich, who is looking for someone who wasn't born in the village and came to the village as a child. That someone is Robert Foster, who sees a symbol on the plane. The last time he had seen that symbol was on the plane on the day of the crash that killed his mother. The villagers treated him as one of his own, and Robert learns to scavenge and survive and become one of them, earning the name of Robert Foster from the leader when he came of age.

After taking the circuit board inside of Joey's robot body with him, Robert gives himself up to the soldiers from the city, and as the plane flies away, the soldiers detonate a bomb that destroys the village. When the plane reaches the city, it is about to land when the guidance system goes haywire. The plane crashes, but Robert survives...and so does Commander Reich, who gives chase as Robert runs into a building.

Robert then ends up in the recycling plant of a nearby building and walks up the stairs. One of the guards, not knowing that Robert is on the upper level, finds someone else working in the building and warns him of our presence here in the building. You'll also find out that someone or something named LINC wants you alive. From here, you have control of the game.

First of all, don't go down the stairs. The guard will shoot you. YOU WILL DIE EVEN THOUGH YOU ARE WANTED ALIVE. Instead, you'll want to stay on the upper level.

Use the mouse and the left mouse button to point and click to where you want to walk. If you move your mouse onto something and you get a name of the person or object, you can examine that object or talk to that person with the left mouse button. To interact with an object and see if you can take it with you, click the right mouse button on the object.

The door to the east is shut tight, and you won't be able to open it under your own power. However, there is a metal rung to the west side of the screen. You can take it with the right mouse button, and if you want, you can examine it with the left mouse button before you take it. Take the rung, you're going to need it later.

If you move your mouse cursor to the top of the screen, you will be able to call up your inventory. Right now, you'll have two items: Joey's circuit board, which you start the game with, and the metal bar, which is the rung you just picked up. Moving the cursor over the picture of an object and holding the left mouse button it will allow you to get a brief description of the item, while the right mouse button will allow you to attempt to use the item on something. Right-click the metal bar, then right-click the door once your cursor is the metal bar.

Robert will use the metal bar as a crowbar on the door, but he will be spotted by the guard! On the other side is a huge gap with no way out, and when the guard approaches, Robert will be gone, and the guard will think that Robert plummeted to his death in an escape attempt. When he closes the door, however. Robert will be hanging off the top of the door, hiding behind the guard. You can look at the sign on the building to the right, but other than Robert recognizing it as some sort of security symbol, it doesn't accomplish anything. Right click the door and go back.

When you go back, the guard will be back downstairs, and he will go through the door to the west on the lower level. Obviously, we don't want to go that way; instead, go east. You'll end up in a room full of junk, display panels, a transporter and an elevator. While you can look at everything, the one thing that is useful around here is in the junk pile. There is a robot shell on the south side of the screen. If you use Joey's circuit board on the shell, Robert will put the circuit board inside of the shell, bringing Joey back to life, albeit in a different robot body. After a brief conversation, Joey will tell you that you are 120 meters above the ground. Not only will you have to avoid security, but you'll also have to get to ground level in order to escape the city!

If you left click on Joey, you'll get several dialogue options. By talking to Joey at this point, you won't be able to get much out of him, and Joey will show his displeasure at his now robot shell. If you ask him what tools he has, you'll find out that he has an extendable probe. If you ask Joey if he can fix the transporter after this, he will tell you to find out what is wrong with it first.

To access the control panel, press F5. You'll be able to save and load games, exit to DOS, restart the game, change the game speed, lower or raise the sound volume, turn sound effects on or off and choose between text, speech or both.

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